Azula's Story
by Kandros Fir
Summary: and all permutations thereof
1. Alone

The doctors at the mental asylum don't know how to deal with her. She is neither lost in her own world like the other patients are, nor does she scream threats and hurl profanity at them. Whenever they visit her, she is always the model of politeness, and the only thing that suggests the madness that hides beneath is in her eyes, which burn with a cold and implacable hatred that promises horrible fates if she is free.

Finally, Aang is called in to deal with her. At first it goes well. She pretends to be cooperative and expresses sympathy at Aang's situation as the last air bender. But this is all a trick. Once she learns of monk Gyatso, she reverse her position and taunts Aang on his fate.

"How naïve, you are trying to save me when you failed your master. You ran away and you betrayed him in the worst way possible. Pretend all you want that there was nothing you can do but know this. If you had been there, at least he wouldn't have died alone."

It is a low blow and she is glad to see Aang wince as if she had kicked him in the shins. Aang gives up on her and Zuko is called in to deal with the troublesome former fire nation princess. He asks her difficult questions like, "How could you suggest burning millions of innocent lives to the ground? Don't you think that it was wrong?"

"Shut up," she yells at him, "there is no need to explain myself to you."

It is her secret code for I don't know. But Zuko, that simpleton, has never been apt at decoding the messages of geniuses and blows up at her.

"What kind of monster are you?"

Once he comes so close to striking her that she flinches, reminded of her training session in Ozai. Zuko, seeing in her the same fear that was in his eyes the day of that fateful Agni Kai, stops his hand.

"I am not my father," he says and leaves. She never sees him again. She is ashamed to admit this but she almost misses him. Now she is truly alone.


	2. Redemption

This time Zuko does not approach Azula with accusations and anger. He is calmer here, his innate brashness tempered by responsibility. He understands that fury will only harden his sisters defenses. Instead he gives her compassion. It is hard for him, considering that all that Azula has done to him but he remembers that scene of her bawling for the entire world to see and his heart melts for her.

Instead of asking her, "Do you regret what you have done," he instead asks her, "What did Ozai do to you?"

It is the right question to ask. Azula describes in grizzly detail the harsh measures Ozai put her through. Once, he gave her a kitten to raise and told her, "Raise it to love you."

Six months later he told her to make it perform a task for her and then told her, "Now make it learn to fear you. Fire bend at it if you have to, beat it with sticks and kick it but make it fear you or I will kill it."

She does as he asked and six months later the kitten shies away at the sight of her. Ozai tells her to make it perform the same task again that it did six months ago. After the task is over, he asks her, "Did the kitten perform better when it loved you or feared you?"

This was her first lesson on state craft. She is sobbing at this point unable to continue but Zuko has heard enough at this point. He squeezes her awkwardly in a tight embrace and says, "You poor thing."

He is surprised to find that he means it.

Though this does not immediately put everything to right between the brother and sister, nor does it instantaneously return the humanity Azula has lost, it certainly is a good start.


	3. A friendship, of sorts

After five years her doctors suggest to pair her with another inmate in hopes that she can make a connection with someone who has some idea of what it is like for her. They pair her up in the same cell as Chen Wang, an earth bender from the colonies. She does not know why he is there and she doesn't care. She hates him at first sight.

At first their time together is characterized by them removing the splinters they keep in their own wounds that keep them closed and stabbing them in the scars of the other side, shredding each other to pieces. But after a while their terrible words become routine and instead of shredding each other to pieces they began to learn and heal from one other.

Azula was fire and from her Cheng learned to hold his head high because when people are stripped of all that they have pride is the only thing left to them.

Cheng was steel and from him Azula learned that there were different types of strength and to endure with patience and dignity even though the situation seemed hopeless because in the end the only real guarantee was change.

And so there they stood, in the mental hospital, two people who were not broken enough to be there anymore, but who weren't normal or fixed enough to leave. Perhaps they would never be. But it was okay, they had each other.

A/N: Not really proud of this one, because I can't seem to write OC's into canon believably, but I'll put it up anyways. Please read and review.


	4. A monster is born

Six months into her imprisonment, the military breaks her out. They are not happy with Zuko's peace process and they want her back in power. She is only too happy to oblige.

Prison has festered hate for Zuko into her heart because she cannot go on in any other way. She has lost everything and he is the one who has taken it from her. She reviews her past in her head over and over again and pulls out every wrong thing Zuko has said or done to her, to reopen the scars of her childhood endlessly.

She hates him so much that she does not kill him. No she captures him, and then hunts the Avatar and the water bender and others down and captures them propelled by an obsession to see Zuko suffer. She gathers everything he loves right in front of him and then burns it . And then she sets the ashes aflame.

She then deals with Ozai. He begs her for freedom and to let him out, but she is deaf to his pleas. Only the strong survive and Ozai had proven himself weak and unworthy. But still, she had to make this execution special, to send a message that would not be forgotten. She puts him in a giant black pot filled with water and then boils it with her firebending. She cooks Ozai well and good to the horror of onlookers and when he is dead and ready she takes him out and seasons him with salt. Then she devours him. And so Ozai is literally consumed by the monster he created.

A/N: Finally I've actually finished something. I hope you guys enjoyed this and please R&R.


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